82-year-old Florida man beats up home intruder

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — An 82-year-old North Fort Myers man had to fight off an intruder inside his home in the Suncoast Estates neighborhood on Tuesday.

Ronald Lucas said he heard a loud bang and thought it was the roofers he hired starting to work. He went outside, and according to reports, he watched the intruder walk up his porch steps and enter his home.

“As soon as I saw it, my wife had an operation, so I knew I had to get to her,” said Lucas.

He said what happened next was just instinct.

“I backed him all the way out, and I kept knocking him; finally, I hit him so hard he fell all the way down the steps and hit the rocks, then that’s when I came at him with the cane again,” said Lucas.

Lucas said he didn’t stop there; he kept hitting him all the way down Laurel Lane.

“Finally, another guy comes along and says, ‘You better leave that old man alone!’ and I said, ‘Well, it’s too late. I’ve already beat the tar out of him,’” said Lucas.

Once the man was out of the home, Lucas and his wife called the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

“The deputy said, ‘I wish he ran into me.’ I said, ‘I wish he had too,’” he said.

Lucas has bruises all over his arms from fighting the man, but he said he can’t let his guard down.

“You can’t be scared,” he said. “If you get scared out here, you’re dead. It’s as simple as that — they don’t care out here.”

Lucas said he helped the sheriff’s office identify the intruder.

Detectives say they are filing charges through a warrant request with the State Attorney’s Office.

This article first appeared on fellow CNN affiliate WBBH. It is used here with permission.